By BOB STOVER
Florida Today

Feb. 20, 2006

It appears newspaper managers finally have stopped debating whether we should have multimedia newsrooms.

"We don't know exactly where it's headed, but multimedia is an important part of everyone's business," said Colin Crawford, assistant managing editor for photography at the Los Angeles Times.

Editors at our paper have heard similar views from dozens of journalists, at papers large and small. Energies now are focused on figuring out how to make the multimedia newsroom work.

The answers will be anything but universal. Small organizations in light media markets have different demands than do newsrooms in medium-size, competitive markets. We've been unable to find any consensus on "best practices." On the other hand, there seem to be approaches that have people feeling good about the direction they're going:

Look for volunteers and give them the training they need to succeed.

At the Los Angeles Times, Colin Crawford has seven of his print photographers shooting video. They all volunteered, and the paper sent them to two weeks of video training at the Brooks Institute of Photography.

They enjoy the work and have become skilled at video storytelling, he said.

"I think everyone is happy about it, and they'd probably like to do more than they're doing now."

Remember that we'll still need specialists.

Your Computer Assisted Reporting reporter may never need to be near a video camera.

Nordjyske, a media company in Copenhagen, has one of the most highly touted convergence operations in Europe. It has a staff of 250 producing a daily regional newspaper, an online site, a 24-hour television news channel, a radio station and a daily free newspaper, plus 17 small, local free papers.

"We have trained print reporters and photographers to do video for the television channel and to the web, both with great results," said Bruno Ingemann, multimedia editor.

But, he adds, the organization also has "key people who focus on online only, radio only, TV only, papers only."

Certainly, with the technical knowledge and skill required for video work, larger organizations will have people who specialize in those fields.

Hire television journalists for print positions to help "seed" the newsroom.

Not only can they do the work you need in both fields; they can serve as ambassadors in the newsroom. Florida Today has hired editors, reporters and artists with television backgrounds.

Carlos Harrison, our metro editor, formerly worked on camera in television in Miami. Now, at mid-day, he takes a break from preparing news budgets and chasing reporters and does a standup for our convergence partner. He's also excellent at narrating news projects on our web site.

Our senior convergence artist came from a company that produced animations for television news. Now he prepares graphics for print and animates them for our web site and television partners. Others are learning from him.

Be patient; some things take time.

Readers don't know about a lot of what we're doing yet, and I've never talked to an editor who wasn't disappointed at the traffic generated by video. "I'm torn," said Crawford of the Times.

"We put up a photo gallery, and it gets up to 30,000 hits. We put up video, and it might get 800."

That's doubly difficult to accept because editing video "takes forever," adding to his concerns about managing time.

But he's staying the course.

"Maybe it's 'if we build it, they will come.' "

And maybe they won't, but we can change when we figure that out.

Take advantage of J-schools who preach convergence.

We've hired several graduates from Florida International University in Miami because that school preached convergence. They started out as web interns and worked their way into the staff as copy editors and reporters.

At a minimum, they appreciate the speed, technology and flexibility of the web. If you get lucky, they'll even be comfortable on camera or experienced at shooting or editing video.

Our most recent convergence grad hire came from the University of Southern California, where Michael Parks is director of the Annenberg School of Journalism.

"We don't want to turn our students into the proverbial one-man band," Parks said. Still, he added, "I think we need a journalism grad who is proficient in one field (print or broadcast), good at online and knowledgeable about the other medium."

This approach fits well with what editors are saying they need from their current staff members.

Compare multimedia issues to situations we've had in print.

Before the multimedia revolution, we worried about whether lumping pagination/design work (a right-brain function) with copy editing/headline writing (a left-brain function) would cause both to suffer.

It did.

But many newspapers found ways to get people proficient in all of those skills while dividing the work in a way that gave quality time to one side of the brain.

The same may be true of video or other web work.

If something doesn't quite work, try turning the knob a little.

Mark Vergari, a senior staff photographer at the Westchester, N.Y., Journal News is a 23-year veteran still photographer who recently started shooting video. He remembers being frustrated at having to juggle two cameras on spot assignments.

"I was shooting a still photo of a kid biting into an apple and thinking that would be a great video clip, and waiting for him to do it again. So I pick up the video camera and wait, but, of course, but he doesn't do it again."

But he has found satisfaction in multimedia successes, anyway, especially fashioning slide shows by combining his still photos with audio.

Tell your staff members how it's going to make life better.

They'll think of the down sides themselves.

"Pose the scenario to reporters as not just 'more work' they have to do, but an opportunity to do something fun they like that makes them more valuable to current and future employers," advised Brian Monroe, one of our reporters who came through Florida International University.